Tokura
Carry a lantern through the haunted valley until dawn, bind a spirit to your spear, and hunt demons who were once wronged people.
- Shonen
- Demon hunting
- Japanese folklore
- Found family
demon-hunting shonen fantasy 1 memberBuilt by Worldtable
Tokura is an island nation of canals, rice terraces and old forests where anyone who dies with a grudge unanswered can rise as a horned demon that eats people. The hunters of the Lantern Watch fight them with spirit-bound weapons and sutra-inked fists, and the best of them know a demon can also be ended by learning its old name and answering what was done to it.
Where it all began
the Burning of Old Kamaza
A thousand years ago an emperor put down a rebellion by burning the city of Old Kamaza at the foot of Mount Oiyara with its people locked inside. Their grudge knotted into one vast demon, the Sleeper, and every lesser demon that rose afterwards seemed to come easier, as if the islands had learned how. Monks who carried lanterns into the smoking ruins to find survivors became the first Lantern Watch, and they sealed the Sleeper inside the mountain under six bronze bells. Eleven years ago someone cracked the seal bells. The volcano began coughing ash, and the sky over Odaigasu has been grey ever since.
The lands
Shimawa
the Canal Capital
the Emperor's city of canals, bridges and paper lanterns, where every injustice of the powerful leaves a demon behind
In the capital every demon is somebody's injustice. Behind each one the Watch lays to rest there is a wrong done by someone still alive (a lord, a moneylender, a magistrate's son), and answering the grievance can mean dragging the powerful into the light.
Kushira
the Lantern Mountains
the Lantern Watch's home: the Temple of Six Bells, training yards in the high valleys, and the haunted valley of the Crossing
To join the Lantern Watch you carry a lit lantern from the Lighting Shrine through the Oyomawa Valley to the Temple of Six Bells, from dusk until dawn, and it must not go out. The valley is full of old grudges and new demons, and every one of them goes for the flame.
Odaigasu
the Sunless Province
a volcano-shadowed province under an ash sky, ruled by horned demon kings who keep their full strength at noon
Mount Oiyara has been coughing ash for eleven years, and under the grey sky demons keep their full strength at noon. Horned kings rule the towns openly, and any village that hangs a red lantern on its gate gives one person on each new moon and is left alone.
Tsumizu
the Spirit Wild
old forested islands of lakes and mist in the north-east where spirits, not demons, are the strange things in the dark
In Tsumizu the strange things in the dark are mostly not demons. The forests are full of spirits that drift, borrow, sulk and bargain, and a hunter who strikes at everything that moves will wake something that has been asleep for a thousand years.
Kanaiga
the Paper Isle
a mulberry-paper temple island whose priests fold the Watch's messenger birds and bind spirits into hunters' weapons
The Paper Isle's priests fold every messenger bird the Watch sends, and every bird speaks in the voice of the one who folded it. In the binding temples of Hisui they also put a spirit into each new hunter's weapon, and the spirit chooses the hunter, not the other way round.
Who you can be
Human
The people of Tokura: farmers, fishers, canal boatmen, paper-makers, temple bell-ringers and most hunters of the Lantern Watch. They have no gift of their own except stubbornness, which is why a charcoal-seller's child can carry a lantern through the haunted valley and come out a hunter. When a human hunter and their bound spirit fight as one, the hunter takes on something of the spirit's shape (a fox's eyes, an ox's bulk, a heron's reach); each deeper sharing is stronger and harder to come back from. Lifespan around seventy years, less for hunters. Best at: whatever they won't give up on, and every stance, ink and rite.
Spirit-blooded
Half-human, half-yokai, or a few generations down from a fox, a heron-spirit, a tanuki, a river serpent or a mountain dog that married into a human family. Most look human except for one thing that won't hide: fox ears under a headscarf, grey feathers at the nape, eyes that catch lamplight, a nose that smells fear on a stranger. Villages are wary of them and spirits treat them as half-family, which is useful in the wild. Many keep small customs of their spirit side, like leaving rice at crossroads or refusing to cross running water on a full moon. Lifespan around a hundred and fifty years. Best at: senses, paper rites, dealing with spirits, and smelling out a demon's knot.
Giant-blooded
Seven-foot mountain folk with hands like shovels and slow, deep voices, descended (they say) from the hill giants who piled up the islands. They haul temple bells, carry paper bales down the Paper Isle's stairs, and sit at the back of every festival so they don't block the view. Most are gentle and embarrassed by their size until something threatens a child, and then they are not gentle at all. They eat and laugh loudly, keep their word to a fault, and love hot baths and small birds. Lifespan around a hundred and twenty years. Best at: raw strength, endurance, Tiger Stance and taking hits; poor at the finer rites.
Name-keeperrare
A demon who still remembers its own name and the wrong that raised it, and chose not to eat people. Name-keepers have a demon's claws, one or two horns they file down or hide under a hat, a grudge art of their own and a knot somewhere in their body that would end them if broken. They live on grief instead of flesh: many work as funeral sitters, keeping vigil with mourners and eating their sorrow, which leaves the family lighter and the Name-keeper fed. Daylight makes them slow and their wounds stop closing, so they travel at dusk. Hunters distrust them, horned kings hunt them as traitors, and every one of them is one bad night away from giving in. Best at: surviving wounds, strength, a strange grudge art, and knowing how demons think.
Relic-bornrare
A thing that was used and loved for a hundred years and woke up: an umbrella, a temple bell, a teakettle, a lantern, a spear, a mirror, a koto. Relic-born take a human shape that keeps a trace of what they were, like paper-pale skin with oiled ribs showing through a sleeve, a bronze ring in the voice, a crack running down one cheek. They are curious about everything human and often a little vain about their craftsmanship. If their original object is broken they sicken, so most carry it or hide it somewhere safe. Lifespan as long as the object lasts. Best at: paper rites, seeing spirits, and the strange gifts of their object (an umbrella that turns rain and arrows, a bell whose note staggers a demon).
Magic
Beyond the gates
- the Buried City. Old Kamaza, preserved in ash and fire under Mount Oiyara, its burned streets still full of the people who died in them; the Sleeper lies at its heart
- the Lantern Market. a spirits' night market on the far side of the mist, open on festival nights, where yokai sell wonders for memories, years and promises